With the recent announcement about changes to the EULA (and in particular, how they will affect multiplayer servers), many questions have arisen. Mojang has looked over numerous discussions by you, the community, and has released a new Q&A announcement, to address some of the most frequently-asked questions to come from the announcement. More many come in the future, but for now, check out these clarifying answers, direct from Mojang!

Quote from Owen »

Are any servers exempt to the EULA?

No. It affects all servers and players equally.

Do server hosts have a grace period to implement changes to their servers?

Yes. All servers must comply with the EULA by August 1st, 2014.

Can I charge for access to my server?

Yes. How players join a server is up to you. Single entrance fees or subscriptions are both allowed.

How often am I allowed to charge players to access my server?

You can charge players as regularly as you like. You can even charge for timed access if you think it’s the best way to monetise your server.

What counts as a server? Are proxies one big server, or lots of smaller ones?

A server is something a user connects to with their client. The user is on a different server when they leave the one they are connected to and manually join another (in the multiplayer screen). Virtual servers and proxies make no difference here, to the client it’s the same server.

Can I charge access to a specific part of my server, such as a minigame or world?

No, you cannot charge for any part of a server other than the initial access. Once on a server, all players must have the same gameplay privileges. You may make a different server for the user to connect to which features “premium” areas, and charge for access to that server instead, but the benefits cannot carry over to your other servers.

So can I charge for my minigames or mods?

Yes, so long as all players on your server have access to the features.

Can I offer a limited trial period for all users?

Yes. So long as both trial and paying users have access to the same gameplay features during the trial, we’re cool with it.

Can I give paying users priority access to my server?

Yes, but you cannot restrict gameplay elements to specific users.

Does the EULA still apply for access to user-created mods?

Yes. It doesn’t make a difference who made the mods, or how they were implemented onto your server. All mods require Minecraft to run. You are not allowed to charge for Minecraft features which affect gameplay.

What do you mean by “hard currency” compared to “soft currency”?

Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including Bitcoins. Soft currency is available in-game only, and has no real-world value. The restriction in the EULA only apply to hard currency; you may unlock anything with soft currency.

Can I sell “kits” for hard currency if I provide a balanced alternative for non-paying users?

If the “kits” contain gameplay-affecting features they are not allowed. Gameplay balance is not relevant to the EULA. If the items included in the kit are purely cosmetic, you can charge real money/hard currency.

My server features a currency that you can earn through gameplay, but which can also be bought for hard currency. Is that OK?

Soft currencies that are solely earned in-game are fine, but you cannot sell in-game currency for hard currency. Hybrid/dual currency systems are not allowed.

Can I sell boosters, which provide faster gold gain, XP, or other in-game resources for hard currency?

No – boosters, item generators, and all other features that affect gameplay are not allowed.

So how do I make money from cosmetic items?

You can sell cosmetic items for hard currency directly or allow players to fund an “account” specific to your server. It’s up to the host of the server to decide how this works. Remember that capes are the exception to this rule – you are not allowed to give them away or sell them.

Can I sell ranks on my server?

Yes. Ranks are allowed so long as any perks gained are cosmetic. Coloured names, prefixes, special hats etc. are fine.

Can users purchase something that affects the entire server, such as a temporary XP boost?
Yes, but everyone who can access the server must be able to use the feature, regardless of whether they purchased it or not.

Can I award all players with a gameplay feature if I reach a donation goal within a time period?

Yes, so long as all players receive the benefit regardless of who donated then it’s OK.

Can I charge for access to server commands?

Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency.

If all players get access to a feature such as a plot of land, can I sell access to multiple plots for hard currency?

No – that would be a gameplay affecting change, so it’s not allowed. All player who access your server must have the same gameplay features offered to them. The same rule applies to items, such as potions.

How should servers deal with users who have already spent hard currency on features that affect gameplay?

Users may keep the perks they have paid for, on the condition that the same perks are available to other players on the server (directly, or purchasable using soft currency). It’s up to the server host to decide how to compensate users for previous transactions.

Do you have a question you would like answered about the EULA? Let's discuss it in the comments!

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EXTREMELY FRIENDLY REMINDER OF FRIENDLINESS AND HAPPY-JOY FEELINGS

Please keep all discussion as civil as possible! This is a very hot topic, and we understand that there are very strong feelings about the EULA. That's okay! Open discussion is a GOOD thing! However, please avoid the following:

It's good to see Mojang are enforcing equality on servers. Now there's no cases of OP invisi-kits in minigames :D. This change doesn't entirely annihilate server brought features, but it means as I said before, no more OP people. I just hope there's not many (big, at least) server admission payment servers...

Oh and I'm fairly sure donations now have to actually be just donations and nothing in return! No more "Donate for this OP rank!" on servers is good, gets rid of p2w servers.

EDIT: Ooh, first post.

Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack

The Darkness will win one day, and light's time being the winner is nearing it's end. Because light is overrated.
IntelliJ > Eclipse because better autocomplete and inbuilt command line. Oh, and use the latest version for mods.
My heavily work in progress Minecraft Modding API and mod loader, N-API: https://github.com/Niadel/N-API
Code changes from 1.7 to 1.8 for us modders (that I found): https://gist.github.com/Niadel/2d2db8dd89de27f970a7

That may be so and while I'm okay with paying to maintain my server by myself (Because I will have to, as someone with experience, the amount of people who pay at all for vanity items are less than 10%), I'd imagine servers like Hypixel will drop right off the map. That may seem great to some of you, but don't forget, thousands of people, including young children, enjoy connecting to that server every day after school. Maybe they'll find a newer server, maybe they won't. But this almost certainly disables the ability for minecraft servers to grow much beyond say 80 slots. Maybe a good thing, maybe a bad thing. I don't know. I'm neutral to this whole thing, honestly.

I strongly disagree. I think this is the WORST thing ever to happen to Minecraft, including clay blocks. Most servers are going down, because people don't donate to servers without expecting something in return. As for cosmetic stuff, most people don't give a darn about that.

I only wonder.. Why? Why would Mojang make this negative move against the community? If you actually think they care about what is "fair" then you're kidding yourself. If you don't like what a server is doing in terms of selling stuff, don't play. Eventually, that server will survive or die by the will of the players.

Anyway, the server I play on is small scale enough that this won't affect me. The community is tight-knit enough that Mojang won't even notice.

Honestly, I think this is just another difficult thing for people to understand. They're not ready to leave their comfort zone, when this is a huge plus for every kind of minecraft player. Sure, people might get upset because they think they aren't going to receive the money they're used to, to maintain a server, or for their own personal reasons, but in all actuality, statistically, you're probably not going to see much of a difference. Players who do and want to spend money on minecraft servers are going to do it regardless of vanity or personal gain. This works with any game, same concept, and if you think differently, you're looking at it incorrectly and you're terrified of change.

Other than that, this totally protects all players of minecraft! People can retain their own private servers that require a cost to join, and normal players don't have to deal with the typical bs of higher up servers who feel the need to milk the players for server cost(plus more which is a joke). Just remember, there's servers out there that maintain their server cost purely from vanity. This change won't even affect them.

This will end minecraft multiplayer on larger servers stunt it on smaller and only allow new small servers a chance. Mojang WHY! NOW SERVERS THAT ARE GOOD WILL CHARGE LIKE $50 a year to play on them or like xbox live and ps online! IT WILL SUCK!

Are we allowed to sell perms for the use of high intensity plugins such as world edit?
I know this could count as gameplay however firstly it doesn't give anyone an advantage over anyone, just saves people time. And secondly the extra resources needed from these people who have world edit is an awful lot, without the donations from people buying world edit most servers won't be able to pay for their hosting as they require such expensive servers for this; I know this from experience. I'd appreciate if you could properly consider these certain exceptions and to understand that not all servers will be able to support themselves with the general rules.
Thanks in advance.

I strongly disagree. I think this is the WORST thing ever to happen to Minecraft, including clay blocks. Most servers are going down, because people don't donate to servers without expecting something in return. As for cosmetic stuff, most people don't give a darn about that.

I only wonder.. Why? Why would Mojang make this negative move against the community? If you actually think they care about what is "fair" then you're kidding yourself. If you don't like what a server is doing in terms of selling stuff, don't play. Eventually, that server will survive or die by the will of the players.

Anyway, the server I play on is small scale enough that this won't affect me. The community is tight-knit enough that Mojang won't even notice.

I TOTALLY AGREE but it will be even worse than that plus i feel like nobody will look at the eula

I don't log into here much but I feel the need to comment on this one with an idea. advertising. several suggestions on this: with 1.8 coming we will have access to..... I think it was the title command for commandblocks? cant remember the name of the command but it lets us display text on the screen. make it do this for say 10 seconds when a player logs into the server (only shows for the specific player) with an advertisement (would probably be text based only but people might still pay for that)

another idea on that front was to have ingame links that players could click and watch the ad shown in exchange for an ingame reward for supporting the server. as it would be optional for all players providing a reward for those that do choose to watch the ad shouldn't be a problem.

if plugin devs would like to get started on plugins related to these ideas im sure it would be greatly appreciated by server owners. they would need a checker to see if players had already watched the ad once to avoid abuse and a time checker to make sure they actualy spent some time watching the ad instead of just clicking it then closing the window (again to avoid abuse)

I don't log into here much but I feel the need to comment on this one with an idea. advertising. several suggestions on this: with 1.8 coming we will have access to..... I think it was the title command for commandblocks? cant remember the name of the command but it lets us display text on the screen. make it do this for say 10 seconds when a player logs into the server (only shows for the specific player) with an advertisement (would probably be text based only but people might still pay for that)

another idea on that front was to have ingame links that players could click and watch the ad shown in exchange for an ingame reward for supporting the server. as it would be optional for all players providing a reward for those that do choose to watch the ad shouldn't be a problem.

if plugin devs would like to get started on plugins related to these ideas im sure it would be greatly appreciated by server owners. they would need a checker to see if players had already watched the ad once to avoid abuse and a time checker to make sure they actualy spent some time watching the ad instead of just clicking it then closing the window (again to avoid abuse)

Ive done that on my server with signs i was payed $5 per sign per week and had ten signs for use.

From what I've heard Hypixel is being allowed to still operate their store by Mojang under pretty much the same conditions.

What has allowed the current state of things is Mojang not enforcing their EULA. Who's to say that won't still be the case. They could very possibly make all this commotion and then effectively do nothing again. Things would change but still stay exactly the same.

As a small server OP though, I hope they crush those servers that rely on creating disparity and the use of exploitative methods to thrive. Those people are just the worst.

All because they're preventing abuse to the proper way to play minecraft? I'm sorry, but if a server is required to sell individual pieces of gameplay just to make enough to maintain their server, they're doing it completely wrong. Not to mention, its morally wrong. Obviously, stated by the EULA, it isn't their game to pick apart to make money off of anyways. This is Minecraft, made and owned by Mojang. This is their property, not yours, you should be happy with the freedom they already give.

Personally I think this is a REALLY good thing!! Thank you Mojang! I really like the idea of equality on all servers! I was seriously getting upset and sick of the pay-to-win aspect on servers, especially KitPvP. Seriously, it's really annoying that there are donators with god kits running around, destroying everyone but each other on all servers. So glad it's about to change! Can't wait, so excited!! Thank you once again Mojang.

All because they're preventing abuse to the proper way to play minecraft? I'm sorry, but if a server is required to sell individual pieces of gameplay just to make enough to maintain their server, they're doing it completely wrong. Not to mention, its morally wrong. Obviously, stated by the EULA, it isn't their game to pick apart to make money off of anyways. This is Minecraft, made and owned by Mojang. This is their property, not yours, you should be happy with the freedom they already give.

A lot of servers spend a load of time and money making amazing new gamemodes and features. I think just selling cosmetics won't even make enough to be able to cover half their hosting costs. People have the freedom to play on any server they choose so why would people play on any server that they think the those who pay have a much greater advantage over them. Personally I would never donate for something unless I felt that I got something from it or that it was a server I loved a lot. This doesn't help new servers as anyone starting up is going to fail after the first few months hosting bills come in.